The Royal Redemption

Good Season.

bebero, thank you!
Tallery, thank you!
mo_123, yes.

Transfers

With Champions League football to look forward to for the first time, money was there to be spent and we invested it very wisely. Argentine defenders Marcos Lanzini and Juan Caballero joined from Santos and Monaco respectively, the latter smashing our record fee spent on a signing (£22.5M). Both players were seasoned internationals and held quite the reputation, they would change our defence from being mediocre to being stable and consistent. Two more experienced internationals joined in the form of Gabriel Barbosa and Ruud Doorn. Barbosa was the bigger name and was capable of playing in attacking midfield as well as up front, while Doorn (Dutch international) was a natural striker with the capability of performing effectively out wide. All four of these signings were top class, with the first two being world class. Barbosa and Doorn weren't far of being world class, and proved to be very influential in seasons to come. Dino Slavica and Vicente Díez were two sixteen year olds with plenty of potential. With a lack of depth in the left back position, Slavica would be cover for Aaron Lewis, while Díez would feature in a few games in defensive midfield that season, his natural position. Branco van den Boomen and Giuseppe Prestia headed the departures as their time at Whitehawk came to an end.

UEFA Super Cup

Winning the UEFA Europa League last term placed in the UEFA Super Cup final against Manchester City. We performed well, to our credit, and scored through new signing Gabriel Barbosa and set-piece specialist Ross Barkley. However, our two goals were not enough as Manchester City scored four and deservedly won the competition. While it was disappointing to loss, it was a great experience for us to play such a prestigious match and to be competing against the big teams in Europe, even if Manchester City were our domestic rivals.

Barclays Premier League

Our new signings inspired some great form and by the turn of the year, we had recorded just one defeat in the league. We would go on to lose three more games that season but collected an incredible amount of victories which saw us make a serious challenge for the title. We proved our worth against the big teams and a 5-2 victory over Manchester City, with Ruud Doorn scoring a hat-trick, was our highlight of the league campaign. Victories over the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal gave our fans plenty to cheer about as we earned a reputation of playing an extremely attractive attacking brand of football. Santiago Hernández bagged 30 league goals for us this season which was very pleasing, but not enough for him to win the Golden Boot.


Our incredible league season saw us finish on an unbelievable 86 points. EIGHTY-SIX POINTS! Yet, despite this tally, we finished third behind the two giants of Manchester. I was absolutely delighted with where we finished the league season and alongside the two Manchester clubs, we were miles above everybody else. Notice Tottenham Hotspur getting relegated, LOL.

UEFA Champions League

Our debut Champions League season was a disappointing one as we crashed out from the group stages, finishing fourth with just one victory to our name. To our credit, we drew AC Milan and Monaco and performed well against these two giants. Hopefully the next season would prove to be more rewarding for us on the big stage.

FA Cup

This season proved to be very rewarding for us in the FA Cup as we put down some solid form and ploughed our way through Liverpool and Manchester United (with the aid of extra time) to reach the final. Reading would be our final obstacle and while we were huge favourites on paper, this was our first FA Cup final and Reading showed their experience. In a tough contest, it was a Ryan Gauld strike which separated us and gave us our second trophy in as many seasons. What a fantastic season for us!

Capital One Cup

Oh look, it's Chelsea in the Capital One Cup......again.

Whitehawk News

Expanded the stadium by a couple of thousand seats, not much else....

Spain Fixtures

Following the 2024 European Championships, the Spain and Italy jobs became available, both of which were offered to me. I decided to take n the role of Spain coach until the 2026 World Cup in order to gain some respect among international coaches, and have a crack at some more silverware. We easily cruised to first place in our National League group, seeing as move to the A leagues for the next series. We also played four games in our World Cup qualifying group. We recorded comfortable wins over Switzerland, Albania, Liechtenstein and Estonia to put us in a strong place to qualify. Whitehawk star Santiago Hernández scored an incredible 7 goals in those four games.

World Football

Manchester City star Rik Van Loon claimed the prestigious FIFA Ballon d'Or award, with team-mate Domenico Berardi in second place. The Belgian has risen to fame since joining in a £42M move from FC Barcelona back in 2020 and looks destined to become one of the all-time greats of world football. John Stones was the only English player in the FIFA World Dream Team, while Real Madrid playmaker Christian Eriksen was a surprise inclusion. London was buzzing as Chelsea earned victory in the UEFA Europa League after defeating PSG in a memorable final.

A good season imo, really unfortunate not to win the league with the points you amassed

Jer, yeah we performed well above expectations and to bring home yet another trophy is very pleasing. Onwards and upwards!

Only lost four games but still could only finish third, shows how tough it is/was to really get past the Manchester sides on FM. Nice season nonetheless, though, both of your defensive signings got into team of the year

Transfers

These are all the fee-paying transfers involving the club. No senior player left on a free transfer, although many youngsters left on loan so you wouldn't have seen Hernández' departure otherwise. Schmidt, Holden & Gray all departed for relatively large fees. Schmidt and Holden contributed somewhat to the first team but they never developed to be the stars I had hoped they would. Gray played his part but new talent had arrived this season and last and his end came. Hernández was not a player I ever intended of selling, and I had originally attached a £40M price tag to him to ward off pursuers. However, his contract was due to run out at the end of the season and he was determined to leave the club for bigger and greater things. When Zenit came in for him in January with a £25M bid, I accepted without hesitation, knowing I had enough firepower to cover for his absence in the form of Barbosa, Doorn and new signings.

Speaking of new signings, there were many of them! Abdou Diallo and Sonni Nattestad joined to play as my back-up central defenders while Caballero and Lascelles would start. Baba Adebayo was a hot English prospect for the future and the young central defender joined our U18s, before subsequently being loaned out for the season. Fran Ortiz was our big name signing of the season. The Barcelona graduate made 29 appearances for the Catalan club before spending two years at Atlético Madrid. A move to Monaco followed but he failed to break in to a team which contained Andrija Zivkovic and the Spanish right winger found his escape route in Whitehawk. He looked a real treat. Natanael and Miodrag Kostic were two eighteen year old strikers who could both be deployed out wide and they joined the senior squad. They were both destined to be world class players and would add firepower and creativity to our ranks. Jack Butland was our final signing and he came in January. Thirty-two years old at the time, Butland wanted to make the move to a bigger club than Stoke and joined Whitehawk to compete with Raif Husic for a starting spot.

FA Community Shield

Our FA Cup victory last season secured a place in the FA Community Shield final against league champions Manchester United. A Santiago Hernández goal for us secured a 1-1 draw and we came out victorious in the penalty shoot-out which followed. Another trophy in the bag, no matter how small it is in comparison to the previous two. No matter what trophy it is, it's one to be proud of winning!

Barclays Premier League

Last season was always going to be tough to follow up and so it proved as our league form staggered in the early parts of the campaign. A victory over Manchester City before the turn of the year saw our fortunes turn as we then went unbeaten until the end of February, when Manchester City ironically brought us our downfall. While our season was patchy in places, ten wins in a row from January to March saw us earn a lot of points, which were indeed valuable.


We earned eleven less points than we did last season yet despite this, we finished in third yet again. Another impressive league campaign for sure and while last season's point tally would have seen us win the league title, we can proud of where we placed none-the-less. Once again, the two Manchester clubs stormed away at the top.

UEFA Champions League

We were drawn in to the group of death once more as we faced PSG, Atlético Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk. However, that did not faze us this time as we secured six wins from six in the group stage and were drawn against Pep Guardiola's FC Porto side in the Last 16. A 1-0 defeat away from home gave us a challenge for the second leg but we more than turned up as we demolished the Portuguese champions 6-1 at home, setting up a quarter-final tie with PSV. A 3-1 victory at home set us up nicely for the second leg but a 2-0 defeat saw us crash out on away goals. We were unfortunate to be knocked out but complacency killed us. A bad mistake against the Dutch champions.

FA Cup

Cup games, Chelsea, you know the story.

Capital One Cup

"Whut, you didn't play Chelsea?!? You should win this then!" Well no, we didn't. We collapsed against Manchester United and we are without this trophy for yet another season.

Whitehawk News

Few more thousand seats, upgraded facilities.... Standard stuff at this stage.

Spain Fixtures

More dominant victories rounded off the World Cup qualifying round. You will see an update purely for the World Cup, following this season.

World Football

Belgium and Man City star Rik Van Loon won his second Ballon d'Or in a row and looked to place his name in the same bracket of Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Maradonna, Pele, Thomas Muller, and the other greats. There were no Whitehawk or English players in the FIFA World Dream Team, while Arsenal won the UEFA Europa League.

Fact that you put Thomas Muller in the same sentence as Pele and wrote "Maradonna"... tsk tsk

In other news, fairly good season. Although surely it's not long until we see you pushing City and United all the way. You just need Hippolyte "Mother of all Beards" Chabbert to come get you there, that's all

Good season and wow Liverpool Fighting to stay in the league. How good did Thomas Muller become in the game?

Was a good season overall, it shows how your CL exploits affected your domestic season. Nice to see your stadium expanded for those nights of CL football!

Walter & mo_123, Muller never reached the ability of Messi, etc, in my save but he consistently performed at a world class level which deserves credit. As for my favourite pop singer, Maradonna, well....

Jer, yes indeed. Hopefully some great CL nights to come!

It is time to recount my experience with the Spanish national team in the 2026 World Cup in the USA. For those doubting I ever managed Spain, I'll provide a screenshot with proof at the end of this post.

Group Stages

vs Iran, 15/06/2026 @ Bank Of America Stadium
On a sunny Monday in the States, we kicked off our World Cup with a game against Iran. In a game we were highly anticipated to win, and win by a margin, we truly struggled to claim a firm hold on the game. An early goal from experienced full-back Dani Carvajal looked to put us on our way to a comfortable victory but nerves took hold of us and we were put under constant pressure. Had Spain legend David De Gea not been between the posts, it could have been a devastating defeat as our defence of Jesus Vallejo and Alvaro Carrion crumbled time-and-time again. We were fortunate to claim victory, unknowing of how crucial those three points would turn out to be.

vs Ecuador, 21/06/2026 @ AT&T Stadium
Six days later we played against South American giants Ecuador full of hope of producing a much better performance. However, a Luis Carpio goal in the first minute set us back immediately and we threw out our original match plan almost immediately in search of an equaliser. With many men forward at all times, we pressed and we harried and attempted to force our way through a tough Ecuador defence until the forty-third minute, when Manchester United striker Ezequiel Ponce came up with the good, scoring a powerful header to level the game. As much as we tried, we couldn't get our second goal of the afternoon and the game finished with one point apiece.

vs Germany, 25/06/2026 @ Arrowhead Stadium
In our final group match, a result against Germany would secure qualification to the knockout stages and we started brightly with an Oliver Torres goal before five minutes had been played. However, the Germans were ruthless and they were clinical and a penalty goal for Timo Werner along side a stunning Kevin Volland volley were enough to take all the points away from us. Luckily for us, we did qualify for the knockout stages, but improvement was needed.


Despite our relatively poor form in the group, we still clinched qualification by the skin of our teeth. Ecuador also finished on four points but we scraped through on goal difference. Germany topped the group, as expected, and Ecuador and Iran were knocked out. We were very lucky to qualify for the next round and were hoping to produce better form when it mattered.

Knockout Stages

Last 16 vs Croatia, 29/06/2026 @ NRG Stadium
We came in to this game with a point to prove but were soon set back as Sinisa Grgic set us back after five minutes. A goal-hungry Pedro Belsué brought us back in to the game with a scorching long-range effort, but Wolfsburg striker Tomislav Ergec headed Croatia back in to the lead just before the half-hour mark. Atlético Madrid legend Koke got on the end of a Munir free-kick to level the game up before Pedro Belsué slotted him from close range just before half-time to put us in the driving seat. The second half was far less exciting but one more goal came as substitute Lalo Calvo sealed the win which took us to the quarter-finals. Against a very strong Croatia side, this was a fantastic result.

Quarter-finals vs Belgium, 04/07/2026 @ The Rose Bowl
The quarter-finals would bring us yet another strong opponent in the form of Belgium. We were in for another thrilling game and Munir got us underway with a tenth minute penalty. Ezequiel Ponce doubled our lead but Youssef Rachdi halved it minutes later. Left back Genís Asensio restored our two-goal cushion with a thumping volley from the edge of the box before Divock Origi struck home a well-taken penalty to make it 3-2, just 27 minutes in to the game. With five minutes to go before half-time, Pedro Belsué made it 4-2 to us and it seemed to knock the wind out of Belgium's sails as we comfortably held on to possession for the second half, with Ponce making it 5-2 in the 47th minute. Origi pounced on a defensive error to grab his second of the game with 25 minutes to go but we were well and truly in control and came out 5-3 winners, and through to the semi-finals.

Semi-finals vs Serbia, 08/07/2026 @ Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum
Serbia were one of the dark horses for the tournament and proved their worth by nullifying the vast majority of our attacks while contributing some deadly build-up, with Whitehawk teenage forward Miodrag Kostic at the heart of their attacks. With no goals scored, the game went to extra-time. Two minutes in, it was that man Pedro Belué who delivered once more! Great link-up play with Munir saw Pedro go one-on-one and he made no mistake, securing our spot in the final.

The Final

There was only ever going to be one way to settle the World Cup and that was a final showdown against Germany. This time, we had revenge on our minds and we pummeled Germany in to the ground in the first half. However, their defence resisted...until the very last minute. Ezequiel Ponce was the man who scored the goal as he fired home after good build-up play down the right, giving us the lead going in to half-time. Germany re-structured themselves during the break and Kevin Volland equalised just minutes in to the second period. However, we were far too powerful and Pedro Belsué had his say by putting us back in the lead. Genís Asensio unfortunately scored an own-goal but a penalty from Munir and another Pedro goal saw us win and claim the World Cup. What a trophy to win!

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amazing tournament! some turnaround from the group stages to the knockouts!

Amazing to see how far you have took Whitehawk, wow! Congratulations on the World Cup win!

After a shaky start it seems you really overcame the nerves and put on an attacking show. Great recovery vs Germany in the final.